Fourth Amendment Essay

Superior Essays
The Fourth Amendment: Our Right to Privacy
Criminal Procedure CRJ350
Dr. Patricia Drown
Regent University
Eboni Alston

The Fourth Amendment is part of the first ten amendments in the Bill of Rights added to the US Constitution, ratified in 1791 and guaranteeing such rights as the freedoms of speech, assembly, and worship. This amendment provides "the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized." The ultimate goal of this amendment is to protect
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Furthermore, generally warrantless seizures of abandoned property or of property on an open field do not violate Fourth Amendment, because it is “considered that having expectation of privacy right to an abandoned property or to properties on an open field is not reasonable.” However, in some states, there are some exceptions to this limitation, where some state authorities have granted protection to open fields. States can always establish higher standards for search and seizures protection than what is required by the Fourth Amendment, as long as the search and seizure does not violate the Fourth …show more content…
The court states police need a warrant to search a cellphone that is seized during an arrest, but information found by law enforcement through a "cell site location information request," to cellular phone carriers do not require a warrant. The information that law enforcement agencies can obtain from cellular carriers shows which local cellphone towers users connect to at the time they make calls. Furthermore, police can use historical data to determine if a suspect was in the vicinity of a crime scene or real-time data to track a suspect. Lawyers continue the fight through the appeals process of their clients that police need "probable cause," and therefore a warrant, in order to avoid constitutionally unreasonable

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